A Woman’s Right to Choose.

Every spring when the snow has fully melted and the sun has finally come out from hiding you will undoubtedly see religious Pro-life supporters plaguing Ohio State’s green campus. It’s a time when students choose to walk a different way to class in order to avoid senseless heckling. Everyone man or woman, gay or straight can be seen rolling their eyes in silent protest. It’s a disturbing site to witness. Old white men carrying blown up pictures of aborted fetuses and screaming about how “God is waiting to punish sinners.” The sinners of course being scared women and young girls because of course we are the only ones who can actually make this choice. It’s especially disgusting to see little kids holding up signs that read “I’m glad my mom chose life!” I have never wanted to raise my hand to a child but for that one I could’ve made an exception.

It’s absolutely astonishing that these protestors are mostly men seeing as the abortion debate has absolutely nothing to do with them. It’s not that I don’t think men should have an opinion, I just believe that it’s completely irrelevant what they think. It doesn’t matter whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice because it’s not your issue. Those white religious men can sit up on their high horses and rattle on and on about the importance of the life of a fetus, but it doesn’t matter, because they will never actually have to make the choice. They will never find themselves sitting in the rundown waiting room of an abortion clinic that time has forgotten. They will never feel the burn of judgmental looks as they walk through the heavy doors and are buzzed in from behind bulletproof glass.

When bills and laws are passed that enable budget cuts for Planned Parenthood and women’s clinics it makes my blood boil and my belly burn hot. This is a choice that is all ours because it is about our bodies and our lives. When I hear, “Well it’s girls choice to go get pregnant! She should own up to her mistake if she’s not using protection.” I want to scream. When russian roulette is the name of the game, men are always left holding the smoking gun. Condom negotiation is often a serious problem for women. How many times have we been told, “I can’t stay hard with one on, I can’t feel anything.” In the heat of the moment and possibly inebriated, do we always feel like we have a say in the matter? In a time when sex has become recreational and men often decide that they don’t like the equipment they’re playing with, where’s our voice?

Then there are those who become pregnant as a result of rape. Do these God fearing mongoloids really expect women to carry the product of their trauma inside them for 9 months, only to give birth to the spawn of their attacker? Their rebuttal is always the same, “Well they were obviously asking for it. They weren’t protecting themselves.” To those who believe this I only have one thing to say, You are Godless. The god who you are praying to is nonexistent. These no exception pro-lifers are also the ones who are trying to pass a bill that ensures hospitals the right to deny women abortions simply because they don’t agree with them. This means that if a woman stumbles into the ER hemorrhaging from an ectopic pregnancy (a pregnancy that occurs when a fetus develops in a woman’s fallopian tube) they have the right to turn her away resulting in her death. So these people really believe that the life of an undeveloped fetus is more important than that of a woman. I am not a God fearing woman, but I am God loving and no God of mine would punish me for saving my own life.

My point for this piece is to open your eyes and make you see how serious this situation really is. Our freedom of choice is slipping through our finger tips. It is being taken away from us by those who will never walk in our shoes. They don’t understand women and they don’t care to. The Pro-life protesting that often occupies my campus is a direct attack on women’s rights. We must take care of ourselves and our bodies and help other women who don’t have the means to take care of their own. Women’s clinics like Planned Parenthood offer free pregnancy tests, pap smears, STD/STI tests, mammograms, and counseling. These are services that women desperately need and for the government to cut it’s funding is a slap on the face for every American woman. It’s insane that abortion clinics more closely resemble bomb shelters than hospitals in order to protect their clients and workers from fundamentalist Christian groups. No where in the Bible does it ever condone shooting doctors and patients. If you disagree with abortions then don’t have one. To all of those Republican senators who righteously oppose abortion listen, it’s none of your fucking business what we do with our bodies. It’s our choice and our voice. A situation that has nothing to do with you or your beliefs. No man should ever have rights over your body, his “seed” doesn’t mean shit. After all they never cry about the one’s they throw away, so why should it make a difference when one meets our egg?

Be proud, be strong, be powerful. Speak out and find your voice by reclaiming your vanishing freedom of choice.